Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“Hello.”
“I need every man you can spare.”
He’s quiet for a heartbeat, and then, “What’s wrong?”
I explain about Millie going for a ride three fucking hours ago and seeing Betty on the monitor.
“I can’t reach her by phone. Wherever she is, she doesn’t have a signal.”
“Brady said he saw her out by the old gold mine,” Rem says, his voice hard. “He and Bruiser went out to check on her, but that was two hours ago.”
I curse a blue streak as another wave of terror moves through me.
“We’ll find her. Let’s call in Beckett and any of the men he can spare, too, since they’re not too far away. You search your side, we’ve got this side, and the Blackwells can do both.”
“On it. Jesus Christ, Rem—”
“We’ll find her,” he repeats, his voice harder this time. “She’s fine. Might be hurt, but she’s fine.”
“I’m taking the walkies,” I inform him. “Channel nine. The service is too spotty for phones.”
“We’ll do the same. Let’s do this.”
He hangs up, and knowing that Millie’s brothers and their men are headed out to look, I immediately call Beckett.
“We’ll all come help, and bring our walkies, too,” he says, five minutes later. “I even have Blake out here today. On our way.”
He hangs up, and I hurry out to find my guys, with four saddled horses, waiting for me.
“We spread out,” I begin, talking through the lump in my throat as we each clip a walkie-talkie to our belts. My voice wants to crack, but I swallow hard. “I want one of you to find Betty and bring her back here right away. We don’t know how far that horse has wandered away from Millie, but maybe not far. I’ve got the Wilds and the Blackwells helping, too.”
I outline the rest of the plan, and my guys all nod in agreement. They’re sober, a little scared, and if I’m not mistaken, pissed.
We all want my girl found, in one piece, immediately.
“We got this, boss,” Levi says with a nod. “I’ll go get Betty and bring her back here, then head north.”
“I’ll head south,” Vance adds.
“Tim.” I look at the older man who’s been here for many years, going back to when I was a kid. “I want you to stay close by here, in case she comes sauntering out of those woods with the story of the year. Watch the cameras, and call us if you see anything we can use.”
“Got it, boss,” Tim says, immediately walking to the office.
Lightning and thunder boom around us, and the sky opens up, pouring rain in huge drops.
“Shit,” I mutter.
She’s out there, maybe hurt, getting soaked.
I grab an extra blanket, rolled into a waterproof cover, and toss it on the back of my horse, then lift myself into the saddle. “I’m headed east. Right into the dead zone. If she’s not answering me, that’s where she is.”
That has to be where she is because the alternative is that she can’t answer, and that possibility—I can’t even think about it.
I can hear the Blackwells pulling in with their huge trailer full of horses.
Bridger is the first one out of the truck and comes running my way. “Any idea where she might be?”
“None.” My voice is hard, and no one misses the fear in it. My heart is somewhere out there, in trouble, and I don’t know where she is. “We fan out. The Wilds are doing the same on their side.”
“We dropped Blake and Brooks at their barn on our way over here,” Beckett informs me. “Two of us there, two here, and Billie’s at the farm with Birdie.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank us later, after we get her back. Let’s go,” Bridger says, and we all set off, headed in different directions from the barn.
The rain is incessant, and I feel better about the lightning when we’re all in the cover of the trees. I don’t need anyone getting struck by lightning.
I head straight for the east border. I don’t think she would have spent much time there, since we were clear that it wasn’t safe, but she might have just been passing through, not thinking anything of it. Or maybe she got lost.
Jesus, I never should have let her go alone. She doesn’t know this property well enough for her to be off on her own.
I’m a goddamn idiot. I should have gone with her, shown her everything there is to see, so she’d at least know where she was going.
Over the next hour, the rain dies down, and the lightning stops, but thunder continues to boom from far away.
I get check-ins from guys all over the two properties, all saying that they don’t see her.
“This is Levi,” a voice says through my speaker. “I have Betty and am taking her to the barn, then I’ll head south. She’s not hurt. Over.”